


Apologies

by Laelior



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kinda Smutt-ish, Nah it's just smut, excerpt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 13:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7716715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laelior/pseuds/Laelior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an argument, he tries to apologize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apologies

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a longer story I'm working on. Since this is my first foray into fanfic, I'm putting this part out as a standalone to test the waters. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Update: The [fic that this is part of](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7783105/chapters/17753761) is now up! This bit is part of chapter 5.

Ellana was deep in thought, standing in front of her desk with her back to the stairs, looking down at the proposals her advisers had sent her. The matter was not particularly urgent, but she felt the need to keep her mind occupied. The bulk of Cullen’s soldiers were deployed on a mission in the Free Marches. She was expecting to hear back from them any day now, but in the meantime it meant she had to choose between Josephine and Leliana’s suggestions. One leaned heavily in the silence-all-witnesses direction, the other relied upon manipulating the Olesian nobles and trusting that their self-interest would do the work for her. Neither murder nor trusting the humans were immediately appealing.

The soft click and groan of the door at the base of the stairs, followed by a tentative knock on the doorframe drew her from her thoughts.

“Enter,” she called over her shoulder, then turned back to her desk and listened to the soft footfalls that came up the steps. 

“Ellana?” A voice called softly from the top of the stairs.

Ellana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. Tension rose up in her shoulders. This wasn’t the messenger she’d been expecting. “Please go, Solas. I don’t want to continue this argument tonight.”

“I don’t wish to quarrel with you,  _ vhenan _ . I came to apologize,” There was something in his voice that made her turn her head to look at him. He stood at the stop of the stairs, one hand perched lightly on the railing. He looked at her with a mixture of uncertainty and concern and...something else that she couldn’t quite decipher. He was never an easy one to read, and he rarely gave her clues to what was going on behind those impassive grey eyes. But the doubt written on his face gave her pause. It wasn’t like him to be less than confident. They stood there, looking at each other in an awkward silence.

“Well?” She prompted, finally breaking it. He took several steps toward her, looking abashed.

But when he opened his mouth, the expected apology did not come. Instead, he glanced at her desk and asked, “Has there been word from Wycome yet?”

Ellana grunted her frustration and turned her back to him, pretending that the missives on her desk demanded more of her attention than they really did. “No,” she said curtly. “I’m surprised you even cared to ask,” she said, the words tumbling out bitterly before she could stop them. He took another step toward her, then stopped, rocking on his heels.

“I won’t say I didn’t deserve that,” he admitted. “I know you care for your clan, and the uncertainty of their fate weighs heavily on you.”

“But they’re Dalish, so what do you care about them?” And there it was, the heart of the argument.

“I care,” he said heavily, and there was a note of intensity in his voice that he usually reserved for speaking of his adventures in the Fade or the glories of the past. “ _ Ma sa’lath _ , I care because they are your kin.” He closed the distance between them and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I apologize for what I said before, Ellana. It was ill-considered. The more time I spend with you, the more I begin to see the Dalish through your eyes. It has been...educational.”

She kept her back turned to him, but her anger was beginning to melt and slip through her fingers. “I’m glad I could provide you with an academic experience,” she snarked at him, but there wasn’t much bite to it. He was so close to her now, she could feel his warm breath on her shoulder.

“You are more than that to me,” he murmured throatily, lowering his mouth to plant a soft kiss on the back of her neck. She shivered despite standing so close to the fire. The hand on her shoulder pulled her closer so her back pressed against his chest.

“You mock my people for our supposed ignorance, but then say little that would help us. Sometimes I don’t know where I stand with you, Solas.” Still, she leaned into him, sighing when one arm wrapped around her waist. He swayed gently on his feet, pulling her along with him.

“Perhaps one day--when this is all over, when there is time--we can explore the Fade together. I can show you what I have seen.” He planted more kisses on her shoulder, her neck, all the way up to the tip of her ear. A knot she had been carrying in her stomach, carrying for so long she’d forgotten it was even there, unwound.

“You’ve never spoken of an  _ after _ , before,” she whispered, reaching up to grab the hand still on her shoulder. With him, it was always the past. He lived for it, gloried in it. To hear him speak of the future….

Her thoughts took an abrupt turn when his other hand reached up and started working the clasps of her shirt and his hips pressed insistently against her back.

“Don’t think I’m not still m--” she started to say, but the words were lost to a gasp when he reached into her shirt, now hanging loosely from her shoulders, and found one of her breasts. Anger slid away and pooled on the ground, like her shirt and swiftly followed by her pants and smallclothes. She turned so they were facing each other, her bare buttocks leaning on the edge of her desk. Her own hands were not idle, helping him shed his clothes to meet hers on the ground. Lips met, crashing passionately against each other. Hands explored, delighted in each others bodies. One leg hooked around his waist, bringing him closer.

He kissed a trail across her jawline, pausing to nip lightly at her earlobe. She shuddered as he stroked the inside of her thigh. Her legs parted for him of their own accord, it seemed, just as her hand reached down to caress his hardening length without her really thinking about it. He buried his face against her collarbone and groaned out something that sounded like her name while thrusting against her hand. “You don’t know what you do to me,  _ vhenan _ ,” he murmured, running two of his fingers slowly over her entrance. 

“I have a pretty good idea.” She curled her her fingers around him, delighting in the shudder it drew from him. He gave as good as he got, she thought, as he slid his fingers inside of her. She pulled herself close to him and muffled a moan against his shoulder as he ground his palm against her most sensitive areas. Already, she could feel a fiery pleasure begin to burn in her core. 

He slid his fingers out and gently drew her hand away, positioning himself at her entrance. But there he waited, drawing up her chin so he could look at her face. Ellana didn’t think she had ever seen him look so intensely at her. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was thinking of, but the words drowned when he took her mouth in a passionate kiss that left her breathless. He pushed his hips forward, slowly pushing against her entrance. She pulled herself closer, wrapping both legs around his waist to bring him further in. 

He began thrusting, slowly at first, but soon with enough force to shake the legs of the desk they were so precariously perched on. She moved her hips in time with him, gasping against him with each thrust. The fires within her core burned hotter and higher with each movement, each kiss he peppered on her face and neck, each half-delirious and indecipherable Elvhen word that escaped his lips. Pleasure crashed over her in a wave so overwhelming it blurred the edges of her vision. His thrusts became erratic before he pulled out of her with a hoarse groan, spilling himself on her desk.

He leaned down to kiss her again, then touched his forehead to hers. They were both covered in a slick layer of sweat, gasping for breath in each other’s arms.

“ _ ‘Ma vhen’an _ ,” he whispered softly, cradling her to him.

“I love you, too.” She pulled him down for another kiss. “Next time, however, please try not to make such a mess on my desk?”

They both looked down, to where the notes she had arranged so carefully earlier were sticky with sweat and his seed. Laughter erupted from somewhere deep in his chest. At first, she was startled--he so rarely laughed. After a moment, she couldn’t help but get carried along in his genuine moment of good humor.

“Apologies,  _ vhenan _ . I will try to be more careful in the future.” He chuckled and held her to him as she playfully swatted his arm. 

“Promises, promises.” She swatted at his arm again, but he caught her wrist with a wolfish grin and kissed her hand, murmuring something in Elvhen that she couldn’t quite translate. Something about the sky, she thought. Perhaps one day, she’d ask him about it. One day, when he wasn’t kissing her breathless all over again.


End file.
